Our tools

Values Modes

How can two people see the same thing and form different opinions? Why are there attitude splits on everything from recycling to immigration to trust for the council?

At TCC we use a psychographic tool called Values Modes to get under the skin of these questions. Rather than just asking what people think, it explains why they have the views they do, identifying the deeper values which people hold and which motivate them. The tool is based on a simple survey, which you can take yourself by clicking the button below.

Take the Values Modes test

Developed by Cultural Dynamics over 40 years, Values Modes identifies three core groups of values. Socially conservative Settler values are rule orientated and worried about change. Aspirational Prospector values are driven by the esteem of others. And socially liberal Pioneer values are motivated by ethics and inner fulfilment.

An understanding of the values makeup of a community can help decision-makers to understand needs, communicate services and build trust. It helps with framing messages, with designing services, with engaging the hardest-to-reach and with choosing the right comms channels. There is a lot more to it than this, as the video below explains.

Values Modes is a tool we have consistently used, over the course of nearly two decades working with local government, the NHS and the voluntary sector. This includes projects to address a host of policy issues, from community cohesion and A&E usage to child obesity and animal rights. We believe in the tool and know how to apply it.

Other tools

As well as Values Modes, we use several other tools to support organisational thinking and enable grass roots social change.

  • Developed by Webber Phillips, Origins is a name recognition tool. It helps to chart demographic change within communities. And it measures ethnocultural inequalities in service access and use.
  • We pioneered social network analysis in Newham many years ago, and have used it ever since. The methodology lets you map how tight knit or atomised an area is, identifying key neighbourhood stakeholders.
  • Our grounding is in behaviour change, and we use behavioural insight tools to inform our work. These include COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behaviour), as well as NEF’s theory of change model.
  • We deploy several key strategic messaging techniques, to deliver our comms and engagement projects. This includes message houses, pull-and-push forcefields, issues grids and narrative development templates.